Individual differences and player interaction in League of Legends
Evolutionary Psychology, Cooperation, MOBA, League of Legends.
Electronic games are increasingly popular among people's leisure options. One of the game types that stands out the most today is the MOBA. This genre of game has as a proposition a dispute of two teams formed by 5 players each one whose objective is to conquer the enemy battlefield. However, when playing matches with people you do not know, it is extremely common to receive swearing and criticism about your choices and gameplay, as well as often encountering players who do not cooperate with the team to achieve the main goal, focusing much more on the intra-group dispute than intergroup, as the game proposes. Therefore the objective of this research is to investigate sociability traits, degree of individuality and risk-taking of the players to identify some probable issues that contribute to these observed behaviors. Participants were students of a technical and higher education institution of the masculine sex. Three stages of research were constituted. The first consisted of an online questionnaire covering sociodemographic information, game preferences and the psychological scales used in the study. The second stage consisted of attending a League of Legends match in an institution's computer lab. In the third stage the participants answered an online questionnaire informing the perceptions and behaviors observed during the match. The matches were recorded and watched. Each interaction of two or more players were labeled. The data obtained in the games with the previously applied scales were analyzed. The results showed that the participants' mean propensity to risk had an effect on the preference of game functions. Participants who presented lower death rates in the match have tended to present higher scores on Risk-Taking Scale. In addition, participants perceived less a contribution of time to the outcome of the match with the highest score in Vertical Individualism, indicating a greater desire to win or be the best. The results may contribute to the understanding of how expressions of individual differences are expressed in cooperative game environments.